The ibu Bazaar at Bangsar Village 2 - 01 May 2009

This is how it looked early on in the morning. Keen vendors set up shop early to avoid the crunch. Vendors did very well on the day and many commented how well the bazaar was orgainzed by Vice Chairperson Paige and Membership Officer Jo and the rest of the team ( too many names to mention ) !



The tastiest counter to man - The Baked Goods Table / F & B ! ibu Treasurer Auselia and a lovely ibu volunteer Moira had a hard time keeping themselves from eating all the lovely treats ibu members donated!

ibu lovelies all in a row.. volunteers at the ticket counter.

ibu volunteer and Charities Coordinator Trudi manning the Charity Table

ibu volunteer and Bonda editor Brigid and Lara manning the goody bag counter

ibu volunteer Teresa manning the ibu table.

Just look at the queues! This was 9.30 am, half an hour before opening time!


Free Passion Tea generously supplied by Starbucks on the Charity table in exchange for loose change! Every penny counts folks! Thank you!

Our beautiful MC of the day, PR Person and all round do-gooder Melissa sneaking in a cup of free Starbucks Tea in between lucky draw rounds.

ibu member and self-confessed bazaar junkie Kim having a fantastic time!

The balloon guy did a roaring trade!

The SIM booth which saw lots of enquiries about its' music programmes.



Fit For Two benefitted fantastically from the Bazaar which was right on its doorstep. Fit For Two is a huge supporter of ibu !

Kizports offered ticket holders a rm7 discount off fees and it proved a great hit!


More views of the massive crowds!


Shoppers hard at work!


The Powerpoint Display which highlighted names of sponsors and vendors and all that ibu is about.

Pipa - one of the very hardworking volunteers with an ibu Dad.

Come and Support the ibu Bazaar 01.05.09 - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

POTENTIAL VOLUNTEERS! - WE NEED YOU! PLEASE CALL ALISON AT 20942234 TO HELP! MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK!

ibu 2009 Family Bazaar


The 2009 Family Bazaar is being held on Friday 1st May at Bangsar Village II in the event hall next door to Kizsports on the 3rd floor.

Our vendors will be selling a diverse selection of products including kids’ toys and books, baby equipment and clothes, cards, jewelery ,baby food, personalised towels for kids, bean bags and gift items, as well as various classes ranging from antenatal care and baby massage to personal fitness training.. Bargain hunters will find plenty of pre-loved items for sale including baby & childrens’ clothing, toys, baby equipment, books and designer and maternity clothes for mums.

There will be activities for children, including face painting and a lego table and in addition Kizsports have kindly offered a discount of RM7 on their usual entry fees upon presentation of a bazaar ticket. Child (and parent!) friendly refreshments will be on sale. With goody bags for the first 500 through the door and fantastic lucky draw prizes generously donated by participating vendors and many other retailers, in addition to all the vendors, kids activities and jumble bargains on offer, it is an event not to be missed!

ibu would like to extend special thanks to the event sponsors:
Bangsar Village II, Novozymes, Mead Johnson, Buds and our official online partner, Venusbuzz.

Tickets are RM10 at the door, RM5 in advance, with a share of profits from the event being donated to the Agathians Shelter (www.agathians.org)



VOLUNTEERS
The Bazaar relies on the support of many volunteers to make it a success. There are all sorts of ways in which you can help and any contribution large or small is much appreciated.

On the day itself we need volunteers for the following roles:
• set up
• staff the door and hand out goody bags
• selling tickets
• staffing ibu Jumble table
• staffing ibu table & charity table
• staffing the ibu Food & Beverage stand
• clearing up
In addition we are looking for more volunteers in April to help with preparations including
• sorting and pricing jumble
• stuffing goody bags
• selling advance tickets
• hanging flyers
• collecting goody bag and lucky draw donations

Just email apply@ibufamily.org or sms Jo on 017 346 1441


DONATIONS
If you aren’t in a position to donate your time on the day there are still plenty of other ways you can get involved and help. We are looking for the following donations

• Baked goods for our F&B stand (to be dropped off at the ibu house by 30th April 12.00pm
• Pre-loved items for our ibu jumble table (please contact Alison on 03-2094 2234

We are also still looking for donations for goody bags (eg discount vouchers for products or services) and lucky draw prizes so if you know anyone who may be willing to donate then please contact Melissa Lozano at pr@ibufamily.org or sms on 012 260 5757

May 1st 2008 - Family Bazaar

They came in scores and lined up in teams awaiting the doors to open. Nearly one hundred of them, bargain hunters, clamoring for the opportunity to scavenge through the items offered at the jumble tables and from vendors alike. As the day drew on, the lines subsided, but the numbers did not disappoint. With more than 500 tickets sold at the door and dozens of children, the day proved a hit for the families who came out in droves and a large success for ibu as it brought in over 15,000 MYR to the resource center! . Shopping to their hearts desire, several took advantage of the hotels luggage racks, carting their goods away by the trolley-load!
As if shopping alone wasn’t enough of an incentive to maintain the enthusiasm that marked the day; over 70 donated gifts from a variety of vendors and sponsors were given away in a series of lucky draws. Providing extra coverage for the vendors present, and offering further incentive for shoppers to linger, the lucky draw attracted a steady crowd of followers banking their luck on their tickets while their other halves emptied their wallets at the vendors’ tables. As the lucky draw did contribute so much to the day’s events, we would like the thank all of those who generously donated their items and gifts.
ibu’s largest annual fundraiser was indeed a success and that is in no small part due to the efforts of the multiple volunteers who dedicated their time and energies to coordinate, organize, staff, and conduct the event. Your gift of volunteerism is a most significant contribution to ibu as the resource center is a non-profit whose sustainability relies on the goodwill efforts of volunteers. Without your support and time, events such as this fundraiser would not be feasible nor would the various services and programs offered at the ibu house throughout the year. In recognition of volunteerism, special acknowledgement should be given to our vice chair, Nikki De’ Cruz, whose countless hours went into overseeing and managing the entire affair.
Because ibu is a nonprofit organization, it is no surprise that an event of this scale not only requires the coordination and efforts of dozens of volunteers, but also the sponsorship and support of commercial businesses. Therefore, our most heartfelt appreciation is extended to Expatriate Lifestyle for their promotion and advertorial support, the Westin Hotel for their venue, support staff, and complimentary refreshments, Richard Tong Balloons for their amazing balloon creations, Santa Fe Relocation Services for their assistance in transporting the jumble sale items, Fun Expresso , Da Vinci Creative Kids, and Kindergolf for keeping the children thoroughly entertained: FunExpresso for use of their bouncy castle, DaVinci Creative kids, for their coloring tables, and Kindergolf for their golf expo.
If you are a small business owner who would like to participate in next year’s family bazaar, please contact the ibu office to reserve a table early. This year’s demand far exceeded capacity, so get your name registered in plenty of time so as not to miss out on a great opportunity. And remember, you don’t have to be a small business owner to participate; volunteers are what really keeps the ibu family resource group functioning. If you have the time to spare or feel that you would like to contribute your energies to give back to an organization that may have assisted you in developing your social network within KL, please indicate your interest to Allison at the walk-in center or via telephone 03-2094-2234. Volunteer opportunities can be one off events such as the family bazaar or something on a weekly basis like representing a playgroup; either way, it’s always a rewarding and valued use of your time!

Silent Auction & Charity Bazaar at BSC 24th / 25th November 2007

We FINALLY have our Silent Auction Article folks! Read On!!

“SILENT AUCTION” - ibu’s first silent auction fund raiser for Agathians Shelter for boys.

(Actually it wasn’t so silent. The last few minutes saw 3 people starting an all out price bidding war on a Persian carpet with paper snatching and strong tones of ‘put that paper down madam, I’ve yet to re-bid!’)
Sorry – maybe I should start at the beginning – 24/25 November 2007 saw ibu holding its very first Silent Auction & Kids Bazaar Fund Raiser. For those of you blissfully unaware of our numerous email & SMS reminders, the auction was held at Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC for you newbies) with 100% of profits going to Agathians. Now, how does a charity like ibu, organize a charity event for someone else you may ask? Well, with great difficulty. In essence an opportunity came about which was too good to pass up - BSC offered us the space for free and we still had Melissa’s voice in our heads (ex-chairperson, bless her heart), asking us (the charity team) what our big event for the year was going to be… so with motivation and a keenness to help others we plunged in and trusted to the guy above.




What is a silent auction? Basically its just like a normal auction in that there are items to bid on – the only difference lies in that the bidding was on sheets of paper that was laid out on the tables, near the bid items. This way people could come back at the end of the 2 days and see if they still had the highest bid or whether they should re-bid.



Besides the silent auction of the many, many items we had donated by generous sponsors, we also organized a kids bazaar (free angel making, nominal fee for cupcake decorating and RM30 for batik painting) and lucky draw. Naturally the angel making was a big hit, the cupcakes earned RM2,452, the batik earned RM350, generously donated by Craft Complex - RM10 per piece of batik made. (for some reason the batik wasn’t popular, though we thought it’d be our best seller. It’s a puzzler.) The 2 days saw 235 tickets sold.








At final count, we had these figures:
Silent Auction RM36,506
Private & Corporate Donations RM14,225
Periphery activities (tickets, cupcakes, etc) RM8,652
TOTAL RM59,383
(expenses – mostly subsidized by Mel Smith) RM2,242
PROFIT TO AGATHIANS RM57,141


As mentioned 100% of profits went to Agathians Shelter towards building their new home in Petaling Jaya – currently they live in 2 very small single-story link houses that is home to some 30-40 boys from age 3-16 years. With this new home, they will be housed in a bungalow with actual grass around the house and hopefully a double story level soon. For more information visit www.Agathians.org




A months of stress, some tears, some laughter and a few new friendships later, and it was all over! Phew. We’re not entirely sure that we’d do it again or if its viable for an entity such as ours to tackle fund raising for other charities, but at the end of the day we had fun, raised heaps of money and almost reached our target of RM60,000!


It was a mammoth effort and there are so many people to thank, so please bear with me:
• The 80+ sponsors & vendors who generously donated time, money and/or space – A Cut Above, Alex Yoong, Amita Pearls, Asian Tiger Transpo, Baby Loft, Bangsar Shopping Centre, Belle Baby, Berjaya Air, Blessings Bed & Breakfast, Bisou, Borneo Pop (Jonas Jodie), Buds, Carcosa, Celebrity Fitness, Cold Storage, Celia Yap, Charita, Chateau De Sable, Cheras Driving Range, Craft Complex, Deok Sun, Dr Yee, D'Showcase, Dodo Art, Ebeza, Expedite Printing, FA'IQ Jewels, Fogal Meat Market, Fit For 2, 90’s Go Lights Temptation, Glaxo Smith Kline, Gymboree, Grace Salon, Grand Continental Hotel, Hadar Gifts, HerbaLife, House & Co, Gudang Damansara, Judy Yap, K.M. Oli Mohamed, Khaana Peena, Kid Sports, Kidscool, Lords Tailor, Leighton Construction, Lazat Cooking School, Mines Watersports, Montes, Mad Science, Mattel, Maxnetic, Nando's, Nestle, Numpueng Art, Out of Africa, Pantai Hospital, Persian Collections, Pet Epicure, Planet Art, Raffles Furnishing, Sew & Soul, Starwright Graphic, Suzie&Russel Palmer, Sprintserve, Sparkles Jewellers, SMACC, The Bridge International church, The Attic, TNT Kickboxing, True Life Art, TwentyOne Restaurant & Bar, Victoria Music, X1R, Yee Wah Hing's Watch, York House, Zazi Art, Zurich Timepieces
• The 80+ volunteers that were integral leading up to and on the days – Amanda & Michael Moggie, Amy Sholdl, Angela McKenzie, Angie Tan, Ann Gunapalan, Anne Tiernan, Asha Pollack, Beatrice Huang, Brian Fernandez, Chela Mega, Cheong Wai Quan, Chong Yee Li, Christina Rajaratnam, Clare Suanders-Tack, Cressa Chan, Diane Douglas, Emma Brant, Eunice Marie Song, Eveline Deutman, Fabienne & Elisabeth Rushworth, Francis, Gail McIntyre, Helen Garry, Ingrid van de Coevering, Jane Sullivan, Janice, Jenny, Jill North, Jo Yoong, Judy Yap, Julia Smith, Justine Goh, K Fuad, Lynn, Maureen Tong, Melissa Smith, Michele Sagan, Nikki D’Cruz, N. Wilson, Nor Azlina, Paige Head, Penny Dunn, Phyllis, Rachel, Rene Springall, Rita, Sarah, Sharon Tan, Shireen, Siew Teen, Sigrid Gauthay, Soraya Putra, Tee, Tammie Morris, Tasneem, Teresa Botner, Teresa James, Vanessa, Wai Fong, Wendy McLean, Will Stegall, Yasmin Panton, members of the committee and many many more.

• And also all the boys at Agathians Shelter for coming out and supporting us: Poobalan, Siddha, Buddha, Devan, Jaianand, Dhilip Kumar, Haran, Kesava, Shankar, Hari, Sunder, Shatiasilan, Yuvarajah, Amaran, Arunasalam, Jeevanathan, gunasegaran, Ezra, Bose Mani, Prem Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Teenagaran, Meriyappa, Thevendran, Jaganathan, Loga Lingam

• And a special thanks to Brian, Viknesh, Simbu and Eswar for staying all day on both days and helping us!

• Much gratitude also to Siva and his helpers
And a special thanks to Melissa Smith for donating her time, generosity and patience, Paige Head for her selfless long nights, Allison for being our constant backbone, my husband Andrew for babysitting Tara every weekend and putting up with my not-so-niceness and Jenny Stegall for having the vision and heart to start it all.
Finally my humble apologies for any errors or omissions in this article. I’ve tried to include everything and everyone as I’ve remembered it, but as I still have pregnancy brain (from a year ago!) I may be a bit remiss.

Hope everyone had a merry merry Christmas and New Year and I look forward to seeing y’all at ibu!


Written By Charities Coordnator Phillipa Yoong-Bayly